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Opinion

Southern Lebanon conflict - Southern Lebanon border - Southern Lebanon - Hezbollah influence - Hezbollah wars - Israel-Hezbollah conflict - South Lebanon

Devastating outcome of a failed strategy

How Hezbollah’s weapons, once justified as a means to protect southern Lebanon, have become the center of a debate over sovereignty, deterrence, displacement and the devastating cost borne by the communities they were meant to defend.

By Dr. Ramzi Abou Ismail
Wasta - Corruption - Political patronage - Clientelism - Public services

Why is being a citizen not enough in Lebanon?

Lebanon’s wasta system blurs the line between survival and privilege, turning public rights into personal favors and making connections more powerful than equal citizenship.

By Michel Tawk
Lebanese resilience - Accountability - Governance - Beirut Port explosion - National recovery

The dangerous myth of Lebanese resilience

Beyond resilience lies a more urgent question: why should any society be expected to adapt indefinitely to conditions that should never have become normal?

By Jenna Geagea
Pride Month - LGBTQ movement - Christianity - Faith and sexuality - Religious freedom

The forbidden third

On Pride Month, the long memory of the hunted, and the question no slogan allows.

By Jean Paul Boutros
Islamic Golden Age - LGBT history - Abbasid Caliphate - Abu Nuwas - Ottoman sultans

Untold stories from the Islamic world's history

Long before modern debates about sexuality, poets, rulers, and intellectuals across the Islamic Golden Age left behind a rich record of same-sex relationships, gender diversity, and homoerotic literature.

By Tony McMahon
Byzantine Empire - Fall of Constantinople - Lebanese Christians - Eastern Christianity - Ottoman Empire

The fall of Byzantium: A timeless warning for Lebanese Christians

The fall of the Byzantine Empire stands as a stark warning of how internal division and external abandonment can endanger Lebanon’s Christian community and its long-term future.

By Anthony Chamoun
Political psychology - Collective anxiety - Social control - War psychology - Existential fear

When fear becomes a political system

How prolonged war, instability, and weak state institutions in Lebanon transformed fear into a permanent social and political condition shaping collective behavior, public discourse, and daily life.

By Haidar El Amine
China - Middle East geopolitics - Russia - Russia China relations - Putin Beijing visit - Power of Siberia 2 - Beijing summit - Russian oil exports

Putin's Beijing visit

Putin’s Beijing visit revealed a deepening Russia-China partnership increasingly shaped by Beijing’s growing leverage and global ambitions.

By Peter Chouayfati
Hezbollah - Amal movement - US sanctions - Middle East tensions - Nabih Berri - Middle East conflict - Lebanese Army

The sanctions reshaping Washington’s Lebanon policy

New U.S. sanctions signal a major shift in Washington’s strategy toward Hezbollah’s influence inside Lebanese state institutions.

By Marwan El Amine
Lebanon - Taif Agreement - Constitutional Law - Lebanese Constitution - Consociationalism

The Lebanese Constitution: A century of endurance and crisis

Lebanon’s Constitution marks 100 years of endurance amid deliberate implementation, recurring crises, institutional fragility, and ongoing struggles over statehood and reform.

By Anthony Chamoun
Hezbollah - Hezbollah Lebanon - Lebanese politics - Consociationalism - Arend Lijphart - Lebanese sectarianism - Swiss democracy - Switzerland - Belgium

What Belgium and Switzerland teach us about power sharing

Lebanon’s crisis is not simply a story of sectarianism, but of a power-sharing system that evolved without a strong sovereign state capable of managing division, a contrast sharply revealed when compared to the stable consociational models of Switzerland and Belgium.

By Dr. Elie Elias
Christianity - Europe - Russia - Orthodox Christianity - Catholicism - Russia Ukraine war - Great Schism

The long divide between Europe and Russia

Europe and Russia, despite sharing Christian roots, evolved into fundamentally different political and cultural civilizations shaped by history, geography, and power.

By Roukoz Salemeh
Palestinian refugee camps - Nahr al-Bared - Lebanese Army - Fatah al-Islam - Lebanese state authority - Palestinian factions

The legacy of Nahr al-Bared: The border within

Nearly 2 decades after the Battle of Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon remains trapped between fragile sovereignty, non-state armed factions, and unresolved refugee camp tensions.

By Anthony Chamoun
Freemasonry - Arab Nahda - Arab Renaissance - Middle East history - Gamal Abdel Nasser

When builders were called traitors: Freemasonry and the tragedy of the arab renaissance

Freemasonry once played a quiet but influential role in shaping the Arab Nahda, fostering intellectual exchange, institution-building, and cultural renewal across the region.

By Rabie Jay
Armenia - Middle Corridor - Eurasian trade - EU-Armenia summit - Global Gateway

Armenia’s defining Eurasian moment

As Europe searches for alternative routes connecting Asia to the West, Armenia is rapidly emerging as a strategic transit hub at the heart of the evolving Middle Corridor and Eurasian trade landscape.

By Peter Chouayfati
Red Sea crisis - Bab al-Mandeb Strait - Strait of Hormuz - Houthis - Middle East tensions

The Red Sea on the brink

The militarization of the Red Sea is raising the risk of a broader global economic shock.

By Peter Chouayfati
Global trade - Globalization - Supply chains - Maritime chokepoints - SWIFT

Globalization is no longer free

How global trade is shifting from open systems to controlled access, where power lies in who can insure, finance, and authorize movement.

By Philip Honein
Iran regional influence - Middle East power vacuum - Israel strategy - Hamas - Arab-Turkish rapprochement

The collapse of Iran’s regional arc

Iran’s declining regional influence is opening a new Middle East power vacuum shaped by Israel, Arab states, Turkey, and Lebanon.

By Marwan El Amine
Lebanon 1984 - February 6 events - Lebanese Civil War - State collapse - Syrian influence

February 6, 1984: The Day the Lebanese state was broken

How militias replaced state authority under Syrian control.

By Dr. Elie Elias
US Iran tensions - Israel Lebanon conflict - Hezbollah - Iran influence - Israel Iran conflict - Israel Hezbollah conflict - Lebanon-Israel talks

Lebanon–Israel talks: A rare and historic window of opportunity

Lebanon stands at a critical crossroads where state inaction, Hezbollah’s arms, and Israel’s containment strategy converge, opening a fragile but historic window for peace.

By Marwan El Amine
Peace Talks - Israel Hezbollah conflict - Israel Hezbollah conflict - Lebanon-Israel talks - US mediation Middle East - Middle East diplomacy - UN Resolution 1701

Lebanon’s diplomatic moment with Israel

To what extent can the current Lebanon-Israel talks move from ceasefire toward potential future arrangements, including possible discussions of peace or normalization, within Lebanon’s legal and political constraints, amid sovereignty considerations, internal division, and shifting regional dynamics?

By Anthony Chamoun
Lebanese Army - Lebanon - Lebanese Civil War - Civil War - Lebanese civil war history - Lebanese Civil War memory - Hezbollah

Lebanon’s unfinished war and the risk of another

Fifty-one years after the spark of Lebanon’s civil war, the country faces a familiar and dangerous reality, where unresolved dual authority and armed actors outside the state continue to threaten a return to conflict.

By Josiane Hajj Moussa
Iran war - US Israel Iran conflict - Hezbollah - Lebanon politics - Middle East geopolitics

Hezbollah’s fate in the shadow of Iran’s war

A widening U.S.–Israeli war with Iran could redefine regional power dynamics, with Hezbollah’s future hinging on whether Tehran’s post-war regime severs its ties to Lebanon.

By Marwan El Amine
Iran sleeper cells Europe - Iran proxy attacks - Terrorism Europe 2026 - Iranian networks Europol warning - MI5 Iran threat

The rise of Iran’s sleeper cells in Europe

A wave of attacks across Europe raises fears of Iranian-linked sleeper networks using proxy actors and covert tactics to expand conflict beyond the Middle East.

By Tony McMahon

The Beiruter

Opinion

Devastating outcome of a failed strategy

Why is being a citizen not enough in Lebanon?

The dangerous myth of Lebanese resilience

The forbidden third

Untold stories from the Islamic world's history

The fall of Byzantium: A timeless warning for Lebanese Christians

When fear becomes a political system

Putin's Beijing visit

The sanctions reshaping Washington’s Lebanon policy

The Lebanese Constitution: A century of endurance and crisis

What Belgium and Switzerland teach us about power sharing

The long divide between Europe and Russia

The legacy of Nahr al-Bared: The border within

When builders were called traitors: Freemasonry and the tragedy of the arab renaissance

Armenia’s defining Eurasian moment

The Red Sea on the brink

Globalization is no longer free

The collapse of Iran’s regional arc

February 6, 1984: The Day the Lebanese state was broken

Lebanon–Israel talks: A rare and historic window of opportunity

Lebanon’s diplomatic moment with Israel

Lebanon’s unfinished war and the risk of another

Hezbollah’s fate in the shadow of Iran’s war

The rise of Iran’s sleeper cells in Europe